Templates, checklists and intake: the law firm data AI labs license

No buyer publishes a price list by industry. What they do publish is a range for a whole company: micro1, Polyshares and Ventra each advertise deals from roughly $100K to $2M or more, and Pewter's licensing partner cites examples between $350K and $650K. Read those as the buyers' own marketing figures, not offers.

For a law firm of about 40 people, three things move the number most: how many years of history you have, how much of the work is written down in one place, and how cleanly client and employee details can be removed. Try the worth estimator for a range based on your size.

On Troveo's intake form, the closest category ("legal") sits in the second of its four demand tiers, which it describes as above-average demand. Polyshares lists legal as one of its premium industries.

Some buyers pay us a referral fee. It never changes your price, and it never changes the order of our rankings.

• Monday: five new matters opened with conflict checks.
• Tuesday: a contract drafted from the precedent bank.
• Wednesday: billing narratives entered for the week.
• Thursday: a filing deadline coordinated by email.
• Friday: a training session for paralegals.

Illustrative. Multiply one week by every year you have kept, and that is the record a buyer is looking at. The written decisions matter more than the totals.

• IP and patent firms: Claim guides, office-action templates and docketing rules from IP practices are licensable to AI labs. Buyers, confidentiality and process.
• Personal injury firms: Intake scripts, call dispositions, case-stage SOPs and demand templates are what buyers want from PI firms. Who buys and how to protect clients.
• Real estate closing firms: Closing checklists, title playbooks and processor templates from closing practices are licensable to AI labs. Buyers and safeguards.
• Immigration law firms: Visa checklists and RFE templates from immigration practices are licensable without client data. Which AI buyers fit and how it works.
• Estate planning firms: Template libraries, design questionnaires, signing checklists and funding letters are what buyers want. Who buys estate planning data and how.
• Corporate law firms: Form documents, closing checklists, issues lists and diligence templates are what buyers want from corporate firms. Who buys and how to protect clients.
• Clio data: Matter notes, email logs, time entries, tasks and intake forms in Clio are what buyers want. How to export from Clio and what to protect.
• MyCase data: Client portal messages, internal chat, case notes and linked emails in MyCase are what buyers want. How to export and what to check.
• Filevine data: Activity feeds, Mailroom email, intake answers and task chains in Filevine are what buyers want. How to export and what to check.

1. 1

   Check the fit

   Answer a few questions about headcount, years of records and the systems you use. No files change hands.

2. 2

   Inventory call

   A buyer walks through what you hold and what it wants. Most say the owner spends one to three hours in total.

3. 3

   Written offer

   Buyers usually send terms within days to two weeks: price, scope, term and whether the deal is exclusive.

4. 4

   Clean and deliver

   Personal details are removed under the agreed method, then a copy is exported. Your originals stay where they are.

A data license can sit alongside a sale or a wind-down. If you are selling the business, agree with the acquirer who keeps the right to license the archive. If you are closing down, keep the workspace and inboxes alive until a buyer has seen them. A closed company is not out of options: SimpleClosure reports more than 150 completed sales of shut-down startups' archives.